Sure, Penn State lost a lot of talent from last year's Big Ten championship team. But that doesn't mean Joe Paterno is ready to call 2009 a rebuilding year.

JoePa, speaking Wednesday night in the Lehigh Valley, said his 2009 could very well be in the mix again for a run at the national title -- with the BCS championship game this year set for the Rose Bowl.

"I want to go back to the Rose Bowl," he told the crowd of about 850 at the Holiday Inn in Fogelsville. That's JoePa at left, signing autographs and mingling before the event began.

JoePa's main concerns, as Mark Wogenrich reported, are the secondary and offensive line.

With respect to the secondary, which will have four new starters, JoePa said it will be OK inside at safety, but he is worried about cornerback.

"We have to get a couple corners who can dominate," he said.

He also said the Lions need to find a couple offensive linemen.

JoePa also said:

-- Daryll Clark will be one of the better quarterbacks in the country.

-- The team had a good winter and a good spring. And many players are in school for the summer and will be working out.

-- The Lions' new wide receiving corps is young but will be OK.

-- Clark and linebacker Sean Lee will be great as team captains but the Lions need more leaders, more players to get excited and "get their rear ends going," Paterno said. "We gotta have a little bit more."

-- JoePa said he feels great physically.

-- On the NCAA possibly taking away as many as 14 of Bobby Bowden's victories because of rules violations, JoePa said: "I think that's junk" and that it's "not right." (Paterno leads Bowden by just one win in all-time major college coaching victories.)

-- JoePa reiterated his call for a college football playoff. "Regardless of your politics, I'm glad Obama wants a playoff," JoePa said, and then cited his unbeaten 1994 team, which finished second in the polls, as Exhibit A for the cause. "That '94 team was the one of the best to ever play college football," Paterno said.